Thin To Win in the Blind

By Chris Hustad
It’s around 15 degrees, and my watch says 8 am on a late October morning in 1993. I have my head tucked under a staked-up snow goose shell, as I watch a flock of 8 snows coming at us 200 yards away. Luckily, there’s just enough wind this morning to keep [...]

Field Blinds – Are They Losing Effectiveness?

By Chris Hustad
 In my neck of the prairie, the month of November officially changes our waterfowl season to the late season. While this means changes in rules and regulations such as a season close for canvasbacks and pintails; it also means the rest of the waterfowl world will be tougher to decoy. Try decoying a [...]

The E-caller. Don’t Go North Without It!

By Perry Thorvig
Twenty years ago, there were plenty of snow geese in North Dakota by the mid-October. Kenmare, Westhope, Bowbells, Bottineau, Rolla, Rock Lake, Cando, and Devils Lake were the hotspots. There were even a few on the river north of Jamestown in those days. But, those were the good old days. Now, those seeking [...]

Hot Spring Goose Hunting Gear

By Chris Hustad
There are a lot of new and existing products on the market today that are becoming popular “must have” items for spring goose decoyers in the flyways. Keep your eye on the following products to help make your hunt more efficient and successful.
Field Shuttle
Decoying spring snow geese is not a sport for the [...]

Goose Calls Are My Weakness

By PJ Maguire
My first goose call was a Knight & Hale Double Cluck. I don’t believe that I ever got that call to make a single honk. Now that I am older I realized it was not the call, it was me that had the problem. My father bought me a Big River flute shortly [...]

What Snow Goose Decoys Should I Buy?

By Chris Hustad
I think snow goose hunters spend the most money out of all species of waterfowl hunters (excluding what some duck hunters pay for their boat/accessories). It seems that no matter how many decoys one owns, it’s never enough. Ask anyone who hunts with me and I’m sure they’ll agree that I kind of [...]

Hunting Snows in the Spring

As the season implies, hunting snow geese in spring is about 180 degrees different than traditional fall hunts.
Much of spring snow goose hunting is time and weather dependent. The same is generally true in the fall, except then it’s cold weather systems that drive birds south. In spring, warm weather systems melt snow and ice [...]

Approaching Spring Snow Goose Decoy Spreads

By Chris Hustad
There’s just something about the spring season that gets me fired up. It gives me the chance to extend my hunting season, and gives me an excuse for my wife when I explain why I spend so much on snow goose decoys. And I’m not alone in this obsession. Each spring brings more [...]

Spring Snow Goose Decoying Tips (2007)

By Chris Hustad
I love this time of year. The snow geese are pulling out of their wintering grounds in route up north, pushing as far as Mother Nature will allow them. Today there might not be a goose in the state, tomorrow there could be hundreds of thousands. I’ve setup a decoy spread in North [...]

Snow Goose Decoys

By Chris Hustad
The month of August marked the beginning of decoy making season when I was growing up. We would meet in the backyard one of our hunting partners where we would put our ideas to the test in our always evolving snow goose spread. We made our own shell decoys from life-size to the [...]

So You Wanna Be a Spring Snow Goose Hunter?

By Chris Hustad
It’s that time of year where winter is inching closer to spring, and my email box will begin to fill up with various questions on using decoys for spring snow goose hunting. Don’t get me wrong, one of the main reasons I started Nodak Outdoors years ago is I can’t talk enough about [...]

Making Your Own Ecaller

By Chris Hustad
It’s hard to believe that another spring season is around the corner. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was preparing for my first spring season, an exciting opportunity to persue my favorite gamebird, the snow goose. Like all types of outdoor activities, the spring season has evolved with a boatload of [...]

How to Make Northwind Decoys

By Jed Fluhrer “GanderGrinder”
With the fall hunting seasons over and the winter months already upon us there is no better way to avoid cabin fever than a midwinter project. If you’re like me you are reminiscing over past hunts and looking forward to March and April (or whenever your season runs) when you can pursue [...]

Convert Shell Decoys to Floaters

By Chris Hustad with help from Tyler Ellenson
If you’re reading this article, then I’m assuming you have an interest in decoying snow geese. Whether you’ve been doing it for years, or whether this is your first step in giving it a try, welcome to the insane world of hunting snows. If you take snow goose [...]

Snow Goose Decoy Spreads

By Perry Thorvig
The following is a description of decoy spreads deployed on a recent hunting trip. There were two groups hunting. Each group had about 500 decoys. They consisted of Northwinds, Last Looks, shells, and various flags and kites.
There was no frost on the decoys any morning. E-caller’s was used only once.
During a brief interlude [...]

How To Stay A Step Ahead Of The Migration

By Chris Hustad
Spring snow goose hunting has become one of my favorite seasons. While still close to its infancy, it has provided some of my most memorable waterfowling experiences. Whether it may be fooling a migrating flock of snows into shooting range or watching flock after flock of whitefronts, canadas and ducks land in your [...]

Spring Snow Goose Stratagies

By Chris Hustad
Snow geese are tough to hunt. That’s a reality that everyone needs to understand before they head out to the field. There’s really no magical combination of decoys that will bring in the birds, and you normally can’t set up in just any field and get shooting. Sneaking a flock is sometimes impossible, [...]

Spring Snow Goose Decoy Tips (2003)

By Chris Hustad

2007 Decoy Tips

If you plan to hunt in the spring, especially over decoys, there’s a lot of work involved compared to the fall. The following is a list of tips and tactics we use to make the whole experience a little easier.
–You don’t need a fat wallet to amass a nice decoy spread [...]

Taking Advantage of New Goose Hunting Gear

By Chris Hustad
(Fall 2004)
Well it’s that time of year again, fall preparation season. There’s 3 times a year that I can guarantee you’ll find me in a sporting goods store or searching the Net for gear; the spring “tackle box filler”, winter “jig bonanza” and at this time, “the fall essentials”. Okay, so most gear [...]

Fast & Easy Wild Game Bird Cleaning Tips

By Chris Hustad

This type of bird cleaning is best used for ducks, snow geese, lessor Canada geese, and upland game. The process of breasting the bird and packaging takes about 3-4 minutes/bird. It’s a great way to do large numbers at a time. I learned this years back and have been using it ever [...]

Layout Blind Concealment Tips

By Chris Hustad
Without a doubt, the introduction of layout blinds is one of the biggest assets to field hunters in the past decade. Every year, existing models get makeovers adding better modifications. There are many brands on the market, and many models can be found of each. I’ve hunted out of most of the major [...]